Conferencing systems provide for communication sessions among two or more endpoints. A known approach to conferencing uses a centralized multipoint control unit (MCU) architecture to connect calls from several endpoints. In a centralized MCU architecture, media streams from endpoints are sent to the central media mixer. The central media mixer combines the media streams into one combined media stream and sends the combined media stream to media switches for distribution to the endpoints.
This known approach for conferencing, however, is not efficient in certain situations. It is generally desirable to have efficient techniques for conferencing.